8-30-2021 PIOCHE, NV

 This area was rife with precious minerals and, by crackie, they were discovered, dug up, claimed, mined and murdered over.  In fact, Pioche was one of the biggest precious mineral finds in Nevada history, if one is to believe the hype.  It seems they say that about many little mining towns out west.  It was named after a CA financier named François Pioche who in 1868, “came here and bought the town.”  But Pioche has another claim to fame:  the violent nature of its residents.  They kept getting themselves shot dead, mostly over land claims but an abundance of booze was also a part of it.  Or an overabundance, depending on how you look at it. 

Here lies, "Morgan Courtney
Feared by some
Respected by few
Detested by others
Shot in the back 5 times
in an ambush"

Boot Hill skirted by
the Aerial Tramway

In the early days, 75 shooting deaths occurred before anybody had a chance to die of natural causes.  Normal for a week in Chicago, maybe, but a little high for a tiny mining town.  These people seemed to be cocked in “pissed off.”  The Boot Hill Cemetery sits silently holding the remains of these outlaws, bandits and claim-jumpers who “died with their boots on.”

 

The town burgeoned to 10,000 belly buttons during the mining boom of the 1870s.  Pioche became the seat of Lincoln County and the townsfolk began building a county court house.  The project was designed and priced out at $25,000 in 1870 but construction stalled when money ran out.  They began issuing bonds, bigger government agencies got involved and the cost escalated.  In a few years, it ballooned to $75,000.  Over a 40 year period, bonds were issued, bought, sold and devalued.  The court house was finally completed in 1938, two years after the building was condemned. 

Million Dollar Courthouse

The courtroom

The DA's Office

The Post Office inside the courthouse
"Can I help you?"

It is now a museum and famously known as the Million Dollar Court House because the final cost was, you guessed it, $1M.  Maybe that’s what pissed people off so much!  As for crabby townsfolk, here are some of the local laws that still apply:  1)  No dumping hot coals in vacant lots.  (It tends to start fires and burn stuff down.)  2)  No young boys in saloons or hanging around Green Gables or any other red light establishment.  3)  Sale of liquor to Indians is strictly prohibited.  4)  No lewd women allowed on the streets in daylight hours.  (Lewd men are apparently good to go.)

Voting booth in the 
courthouse - Who knew that
the Republicans would be
on the left?!

 

One of three jail cells
Think it might have been
HOT in there?!

Three jail cells in the courthouse

There is no longer nickel or silver ore mining going on in Pioche and the aerial tramway is no longer active.  It was quite an engineering affair.  The cables carried the ore cars down from Treasure Hill to the mill and although there was a 5 hp motor to assist, the loaded cars moved down mostly by gravity.  Simultaneously, this carried the empty cars up the hill.  The cost of operating this way was roughly 6 cents per ton of ore.  Pretty damned clever, I think.

 

Aerial Tramway mill
Active from 1920-30s

Overland Hotel and Saloon

The Overland Hotel and Saloon sits on the footprint of the original building which operated as a boarding house.  A disastrous fire in 1947 destroyed the original building and in 1948, the hotel was built as it stands today.  As firearms `were really the only “law enforcement” in the early days, there were a number of shooting deaths that took place in this building, presumably having a lot to do with the attached saloon.  Many folks (including Wendy the Barmaid who served us a beer) swear that the hotel is haunted.  Wendy hears screams, her name called, sees shadows moving from room to room and things that rattle and go bump in the night.  The hotel has 14 rooms appointed beautifully.  (Be ready to climb the stairs.)  Another bucket list item for the Labor Day festivities for Lindy and Rob!

Roberto in the lobby of the 
Overland Hotel and Saloon
The backbar was shipped around
South America's Cape Horn

 

Gunslinger's Saloon

The Gunslinger’s Saloon is right up the street, where you can get a cold beer, an ice cream cone or a po’boy.  It was originally the Ghost Town Saloon where burgers were barbecued in the back yard until the old man turned the key and simply walked away.  The new owners have maintained the little building nearly intact, with 3 tables, corrugated steel walls, bare lightbulbs attached to the wooden rafters and bullet holes in the original bay windows.  It started out as a garage, apparently, since the establishment is shy of a bathroom but it is homey and welcoming.  One evening, Judy and her husband came down to their new saloon with their pistols and blew several holes in the new Gunslinger’s shingle.  She grinned, saying, “Just to make it look authentic, don’tchaknow!”

"There's one of the bullet holes."

Gunslinger's Saloon

 

Pioche deserves much more exploration at some future time but for now, we move along to Provo, UT.

8-29-2021 Summer and Fall Cross-Country Trip - Intro

A week before departure and, no surprise, things are going haywire.  We had Andersen here to install two new doors on the house and later in the day, after they left, we sat with a toonie admiring them.  As we gazed at the new wonderfulness, I mused, “So our security sensors went out with the trash?”  Oh shit oh dear!  We tried to reach Andersen but it was too late, the doors had gone where all old doors go to die.  So there we were without a security system on the back of the house with a seven-day-countdown.  Fifteen panicky phone calls and a few hours later, we locked in an appointment with ADT to have sensors installed and programmed the day before departure.

 

Meanwhile, Andersen is still wrapping up details;  stucco repair, painting, etc.  They’ll be finished 2 days before departure.  This is another saga that had its beginnings last April.  We’ll leave that one alone.

 

Meanwhile, my computer took one final leap into the afterlife.  A new computer with hours to spare?  Another, “Oh shit oh dear!”   Fortunately Josh the Geek at our local Great Computer Deals had me up and running with a new laptop in an hour and a half!  He’s a geek AND a magician!

 

And then, there’s this:  The transfer switch died on Noobee which means that we had no frig and no air.  Nobody is going anywhere at this time without air, I promise you.  Rob found an electrician but when he looked at the pix that we sent, he told us that he didn’t have this particular box.  He had to get one from TX!  Wha-a-at?  He had it FedEx’d overnight to his business but then told us that he and his family were going to CA for the week end and he couldn’t fix it till Monday.  This pushed our departure date out 2 days till Tuesday.  I nearly cried.  I have all of our parks, mileage and plans laid out and paid in advance, some with no cancellation or refund policy.  One day off and the whole plan falls out of bed.

 

Meanwhile, one of our awnings developed a 2 foot long tear that was creeping.  I contacted Carefree Awnings of CO and they told me that our warranty had expired after one year but I could get a replacement if I wanted to simply send $900.  So I shrugged and forgot about it.  About three weeks later, the UPS guy delivered a great big box to our doorstep.  It was from Carefree!  I was shocked and panicky, thinking maybe I had sipped one too many toonies and gave them my credit card number!  We tore open the packing slip and read, “Good will to customer no charge.”  We were stunned and delighted!  We didn’t know what to do with it but we were happy!

 

But the transfer switch headache lingered.  The FedEx people would not give the package from TX to anyone but the addressee (who was in CA).  As it happens, however, the electrician’s wife had to come back because her dog had had a litter of puppies, caesarian, and had ripped out her stitches.  Jill returned to tend to her mamma dog.  So she picked up the package from Fed Ex and delivered it to our door with a 2-day countdown to departure.

 

Meanwhile, Rob found a fellow who knew how to install awnings and he asked, “By the way, do you know anything about electricity?”  It happens that he is also a licensed, certified electrician and knows all about transfer switches!  With one day to departure, he came to the house and bazinga!  We have electricity in Noobee!  Were the stars lining up?  A free awning and a caesarian litter of puppies?  What can I say?  Our departure day was back on schedule!

 

So Rob began cleaning the windshield and… discovered that we had taken a hit and the windshield had a chip in it.  Back to the phone banks!  We found a repair shop that is open on Sunday in Vegas with a half day to spare till departure.  So here we are, Sunday, on our way, with a detour to the auto glass shop!  Was all of this more info and headache than you need?  Me, too, trust me!  My nerves are raw.  However, we are officially on the road as scheduled!  Whatever we have forgotten or omitted will remain so.  Things can only become fun at this point, t-loggers!  Right?  Can I hear a “Yes?!”  First stop:  Pioche, NV.